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<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="container.history_and_reasons"></a><a class="link" href="history_and_reasons.html" title="History and reasons to use Boost.Container">History and reasons to use
    Boost.Container</a>
</h2></div></div></div>
<div class="toc"><dl class="toc">
<dt><span class="section"><a href="history_and_reasons.html#container.history_and_reasons.boost_container_history">Boost.Container
      history</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="history_and_reasons.html#container.history_and_reasons.Why_boost_container">Why
      Boost.Container?</a></span></dt>
</dl></div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="container.history_and_reasons.boost_container_history"></a><a class="link" href="history_and_reasons.html#container.history_and_reasons.boost_container_history" title="Boost.Container history">Boost.Container
      history</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
        <span class="bold"><strong>Boost.Container</strong></span> is a product of a long development
        effort that started <a href="http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2004/11/76263.php" target="_top">in
        2004 with the experimental Shmem library</a>, which pioneered the use
        of standard containers in shared memory. Shmem included modified SGI STL
        container code tweaked to support non-raw <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">allocator</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">pointer</span></code>
        types and stateful allocators. Once reviewed, Shmem was accepted as <a href="http://www.boost.org/libs/interprocess/" target="_top">Boost.Interprocess</a>
        and this library continued to refine and improve those containers.
      </p>
<p>
        In 2007, container code from node containers (<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">map</span></code>,
        <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">list</span></code>, <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">slist</span></code>)
        was rewritten, refactored and expanded to build the intrusive container library
        <a href="http://www.boost.org/libs/intrusive/" target="_top">Boost.Intrusive</a>.
        <span class="bold"><strong>Boost.Interprocess</strong></span> containers were refactored
        to take advantage of <span class="bold"><strong>Boost.Intrusive</strong></span> containers
        and code duplication was minimized. Both libraries continued to gain support
        and bug fixes for years. They introduced move semantics, emplacement insertion
        and more features of then unreleased C++0x standard.
      </p>
<p>
        <span class="bold"><strong>Boost.Interprocess</strong></span> containers were always
        standard compliant, and those containers and new containers like <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">stable_vector</span></code> and <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">flat_</span><span class="special">[</span><span class="identifier">multi</span><span class="special">]</span><span class="identifier">set</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">map</span></code> were used outside <span class="bold"><strong>Boost.Interprocess</strong></span>
        with success. As containers were mature enough to get their own library,
        it was a natural step to collect them containers and build <span class="bold"><strong>Boost.Container</strong></span>,
        a library targeted to a wider audience.
      </p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="container.history_and_reasons.Why_boost_container"></a><a class="link" href="history_and_reasons.html#container.history_and_reasons.Why_boost_container" title="Why Boost.Container?">Why
      Boost.Container?</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
        With so many high quality standard library implementations out there, why
        would you want to use <span class="bold"><strong>Boost.Container</strong></span>? There
        are several reasons for that:
      </p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
            Even if you have a earlier standard conforming compiler, you still can
            have access to many of the latest C++ standard features and have an easy
            code migration when you change your compiler.
          </li>
<li class="listitem">
            It's compatible with <span class="bold"><strong>Boost.Interprocess</strong></span>
            shared memory allocators.
          </li>
<li class="listitem">
            You have extremely useful new containers like <code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">[</span><span class="identifier">stable</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="keyword">static</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">small</span><span class="special">]</span><span class="identifier">_vector</span></code> and <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">flat_</span><span class="special">[</span><span class="identifier">multi</span><span class="special">]</span><span class="identifier">set</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">map</span></code>.
          </li>
<li class="listitem">
            If you work on multiple platforms, you'll have a portable behaviour without
            depending on the std-lib implementation conformance of each platform.
            Some examples:
            <div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: circle; ">
<li class="listitem">
                  Default constructors don't allocate memory at all, which improves
                  performance and usually implies a no-throw guarantee (if predicate's
                  or allocator's default constructor doesn't throw).
                </li>
<li class="listitem">
                  Small string optimization for <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../doxygen/boost_container_header_reference/classboost_1_1container_1_1basic__string.html" title="Class template basic_string">basic_string</a></code>.
                </li>
</ul></div>
          </li>
<li class="listitem">
            <a class="link" href="extended_functionality.html" title="Extended functionality: Basic extensions">Extended functionality</a>
            beyond the standard based on user feedback to improve code performance.
          </li>
<li class="listitem">
            You need a portable implementation that works when compiling without
            exceptions support or you need to customize the error handling when a
            container needs to signal an exceptional error.
          </li>
</ul></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="copyright-footer">Copyright © 2009-2018 Ion Gaztanaga<p>
        Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
        file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt" target="_top">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)
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